Division of votes sees BJP through in Muslim areas

NEW DELHI: The BJP did not field even a single Muslim candidate in UP, but the party managed to snatch several seats in districts with sizeable Muslim population. The BJP won assembly segments in Rampur, Moradabad, Amroha, Saharanpur and Bahraich districts which have sizeable Muslim population.

BJP won all eight seats in Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharth Nagar districts in eastern UP. These two districts have substantial Muslim population based on which the fledgling Peace Party, which derives support from Muslim community, won one seat in 2012.

In Bahraich, the BJP virtually swept the entire district, except one seat, where Yasar Shah, sitting minister in Akhilesh cabinet, barely scraped through with a thin margin. His mom, however, lost the family’s traditional Bahraich city seat to BJP’s Anupama Jaiswal.

Though the BJP could not sweep in the same fashion elsewhere, it managed to win many seats in other districts with substantial Muslim population.

BJP has won two seats in Rampur district, the native of SP’s Muslim face Azam Khan. The BJP also won couple of seats in neighbouring Moradabad and Amroha. The party won in communally sensitive Meerut, Saharanpur and Aligarh surprising SP and BSP.

With SP and BSP fielding Muslim candidates in these districts, the BJP was hoping on consolidating Hindu votes behind it in the name of anti-incumbency. With BSP pitching hard on Muslim support base, BJP leaders suggest that many Hindu supporters shifted loyalty to the BJP helping the party win in these areas.